Pope to launch Bible-reading marathon on TV

The Pope is to make his debut as a prime-time TV star later this year when he launches a marathon, round-the-clock Bible reading that will also be transmitted simultaneously on the internet.

Unlike his flamboyant predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI is not known for media awareness, but a senior Vatican official said the pontiff had been persuaded to take part in the event because he would not be commenting, but simply giving a pure reading of the text.

Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, added that the project carried a message: "An appeal to the Catholic church to go back to studying and deepening its knowledge of the Holy Scriptures."

The reading is to begin on the evening of October 5, immediately after a hugely popular Sunday chat and entertainment programme on the first channel of Italy's state-funded RAI network.

Once the Pope has read the start of Genesis from St Peter's, the same 33 chapters will be read in Hebrew by the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni.

An Italian Muslim association has signalled it too is keen to take part in the reading, which will continue in a Rome church for transmission on RAI's satellite educational channel.

Some 1,200 volunteers are expected to take part over six days and nights.

Why it has been decided that the Pope should halt at chapter 33 is not absolutely clear, though chapter 34 may offer a clue. It begins, in the King James version: "And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

"And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her."